Benzolift Break?

[Wiley]

After literally years of research on making aerial shells, I have settled on making canister shells, and have thoroughly acquainted myself with their construction process. I intend to make 2" and 3" single break and multibreak shells in accordance with the instructions on Creagan's website. Someday, I hope to work up to 4", but for now, I'm more than happy to stick with the smaller sizes. My main concern is about the burst used in traditional "salami" shells: granulated BP. I do not wish to make my own BP, and at $25 a pound, commercial BP is a bit on the expensive side. I'm wondering if Benzolift, made with NaSally according to Creagan's instructions, could (or should) be used to burst 2" and 3" canisters. I'm looking for slightly stronger, more symmetrical breaks out of my salamis than I can get with plain BP. However, I'm a little worried the Benzolift may be too fast. Would granulating it through a 4 mesh screen (thereby winding up with 2Fa sized particles) make it burn about like super hot 2Fa BP? Thanks! Edited August 28, 2012 by Wiley

[pyrokid]

If I may ask, what do you have against making your own bp?

[Hoppy]

1) Where exactly are you looking that you are seeing ads for $25 a pound?

 

--- I suggest you do a little more digging around the internet...I still recommend making your own - 3 simple ingredients and if you do not have a ball mill, you can always use other methods (CIA). ***I just saw some for $14/lb, $10/lb, and found a great deal buying $5/lb for some really good 2FA in a 100lb min GB***

 

2) Benzolift burns very hot - are you just planning to pour it in your can or were you looking at eventually BP over rice hulls?

 

 

Since you want a more symmetrical break, you will also need to take into consideration if you are using a canule (canula), how you will be spiking your shells (to increase the pressure and provide a better performance) and the burst (I do use coated rice hulls - you coudl use 2FA/Benzo (that gets really heavy) or BP coated rice krispies/saw dust, pulverone, etc)

[Mumbles]

My limited experience with benzolift as a break charge resulted in not much more than salutes. The shells I was using also had my first attempts at preparing saettines, so it's a little hard to tell if it was the burst or just failing inserts. I did make a couple of charcoal star breaks that were extremely hard, but had a good number light. You have to remember that these are also about the easiest things to light in general. At least they didn't shatter.

[Arthur]

Symmetry is often a property of the shell case and spiking and pasting. What are you going to lift the shell with? What do you have against making your own BP? The only mortar failure I've ever seen in hobby pyro was someone using benzolift as lift -it was so fast that the tube failed.

[Wiley]

Pyrokid and Hoppy, I do not wish to make my own BP because I live on slightly over 1 acre of land in a residential area; I can't risk a ball mill explosion in this environment. All other methods of making BP that I've read about have a number of drawbacks: either a lack of power, lack of mechanical strength, or both. Furthermore, I can't test any real shells until the week before the Fourth or on NYE, so I need to implement proven methods of shell construction to get reasonable results when those times come. I'm limited to testing stars and perhaps some of the slightly louder inserts such as whistles or caplug reports.

 

Hoppy, I cannot purchase blasting grade powders because I'm not licensed to do so, however, just out of curiosity, where did you find that deal on 2Fa? Thus far, Crater Fireworks has the best price on BP at $9.5 for Diamondback sporting grades, assuming that you can afford a 25# case. If you buy 1# cans, it's $13 for cannon and Fg.

[Wiley]

After more research on buying BP, it seems too expensive to be worth it. Crater Fireworks charges a $57 HAZ fee if you purchase less than a 25# case ! Such a case costs $300 ($12 per lb).

 

I've thinking of ways to make a ball mill safer in the event of an exposion. It could be run inside a shallow pit with a piece of plywood weighed down with sandbags on top. The jar could be constructed of 4" HDPE (mortar tubing) with wooden end plugs held in by radial screws. Also, have any of you used Skylighter's lead balls (http://www.skylighter.com/lead-milling-media.htm)? Are they really as hard as they claim (how long do they last)? I intend to build an HDPE 4" mill jar of the same dimensions as a Harbor Freight 3lb jar. The small size is intended to help save money on media and to reduce the power of a potential explosion. I already have a suitable motor; all I have to do is build it .

 

To change the subject a bit, I live in an area that only seems to be able to grow Pondorosa Pine. I've heard that this doesn't make very good charcoal. However, I have a good supply of cedar that I have been using for fireplace kindling. Would cedar make a good, reactive charcoal, perhaps equivalent to willow or white pine?

[dagabu]

After more research on buying BP, it seems too expensive to be worth it. Crater Fireworks charges a $57 HAZ fee if you purchase less than a 25# case ! Such a case costs $300 ($12 per lb).

 

 

Yup, that's why we make it ourselves for about $1.00 a pound. Jon has Fuse powder for sale for $1.00 a pound as well, this stuff can be ballmilled down and used as BP as well.

 

-dag

 

 

[ryanlg95]

Wiley,

I would not worry about a ball mill explosion if you make and use it safely. Only use non-sparking material (Lead, ceramic) and don't ball mill metals. Even when ball milling with metal media, the chances of a spark is very slim, and then the chances of that spark igniting the black powder is also very slim, so when non-sparking material is used and not milling metals, the chance of an explosion is very near to zero.

As a last resort as you said, you could use it in a pit, but it is unnecessary.

-Ryan

[Pyrotrev]

 

I've thinking of ways to make a ball mill safer in the event of an exposion. It could be run inside a shallow pit with a piece of plywood weighed down with sandbags on top. The jar could be constructed of 4" HDPE (mortar tubing) with wooden end plugs held in by radial screws. Also, have any of you used Skylighter's lead balls (http://www.skylighte...lling-media.htm)? Are they really as hard as they claim (how long do they last)? I intend to build an HDPE 4" mill jar of the same dimensions as a Harbor Freight 3lb jar. The small size is intended to help save money on media and to reduce the power of a potential explosion. I already have a suitable motor; all I have to do is build it .

 

 

Better still, use a shorter but larger diameter HDPE tube with one end plug held relatively loosely - that way if you were to get an ignition the contents wouldn't be projected far.

[Arthur]

If you haven't enough space to make BP comfortably then you need a bigger space to make shells.

[Seymour]

Wiley,

I would not worry about a ball mill explosion if you make and use it safely.

 

I'd have said the same thing too, probably, before I was witness to a 'safe' Ball mill exploding.

 

Preparing for the (very rare possibility) of a mill explosion is an important aspect of safe milling.

[Arthur]

You say that you live on over an acre, If you can't find a place where you can locate a small mill and send electricity to that place I'm very surprised.

[dagabu]

You say that you live on over an acre, If you can't find a place where you can locate a small mill and send electricity to that place I'm very surprised.

 

You should dig a pit and place sand bags on top of a plywood board above it.

 

-dag

[Mumbles]

If I was in a location where I was somewhat worried about ball milling I would stick to lead only. All of the ball milling accidents in recent memory came from either ceramic or steel media. Just going with the law of averages on this one. A barricade or pit would put my mind quite at ease, as the only damage would be to the mill itself.

[Arthur]

An acre in teemperate climes is quite sufficient to have some raised flower beds with whatever grows well and looks nice locally. Or you could put an array of HUGE plant pots (three feet HIGH or so) to enable you to hide a mill shield.

 

If you need to be quiet then use a rubber mill jar, even quieter use ceramic media in a rubber jar.

 

As you will find almost all the available literature assumes that you have good BP in various grades (sizes) trying to use something else is re-inventing the wheel in a high risk industry.

[Wiley]

On the subject of ball mills, I've recently been looking at using Lotorne's 3lb jar, which, other than a decal on the lid, looks exactly like the one included with the Harbor Freight mill.

 

I also wish to make my own lead media, since $kylighter charges $50 for 5# of hardened lead balls. For those of you who have made your own media, which of these alloys would produce the most durable, long-lasting media: http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm?

 

 

[Neruda]

IMO go with the linotype alloy even if they said the super hard ones are 70-30 Pb Sn

[Swede]

I've been away from the BP game for a while, but I've always been comfortable using brass media to mill BP. I dislike lead... I once weighed lead media before and after, and found that a HUGE amount of Pb had been added to the BP. I can only imagine the toxicity of that smoke we all love to smell. But to be fair, I was using softer lead. For those who use hardened lead, an interesting experiment would be to weigh a ball before and after a mill job. You could identify one ball by giving it a good hard punch to dimple it. A scale good to 0.01g should do the trick.

 

But brass... take a few 0.500" or 0.625" rods, cut sections equal to the diameter, and it mills excellent BP.

 

If I were to guess, many of the BP ball mill accidents in the past could be attributed to leaking BP into motors and the like. If there is BP anywhere outside the jar when finished, something is wrong. And motors should be shielded from any potential spill.

 

Summary - homemade BP is safe, I believe, no worse than a half dozen other operations we do in pursuit of this hobby, and fun and fascinating to boot, experimenting with the different BP processes, charcoals, etc. A pit dug into the ground, covered with plywood and maybe a sandbag or two, is going to pretty much prevent damage to other structures and funnel any blast upwards. Of course, it'll draw attention, but at least nothing gets hurt.